Thursday, June 14, 2012

The Sword of Love


Throughout the dimension of time, there is such a thing, The Sword of Love. It comes upon life, sister to common reason, and it conquers or divides, because it forces decision. This is the love of commitment.
It can take no prisoners. Its very purpose is determining the sanctity of the will.
The Sword of Love works rather like the Word of God:
“Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul and spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
~Hebrews 4:12 (NRSV)
Life Requires Obedience to This Sword of Love
We get the choice to live or not live in this life—to not live is to perpetually sit in the no-man’s land of indecision; the skirting of commitment; the shirking of accountability.
Show me a man or a woman who cannot, or will not, commit to major life undertakings, or even receive accountability, and I will show you someone who has decided to fail in the true endeavour of life. They may begrudge life, God, or anyone else, but the irony is they have only one to begrudge—the person they behold in a mirror.
Such people may go around in some stupor of command dictating this and that, reacting virulently to the various challenges of life, kicking hard against truth, but one thing cannot be changed:
The Sword of Love beckons ever so persistently, even at their refusal.
Those humble enough to obey—and these are the many—for they have learned; so often the hard way—are blessed in the application of their God-anointed knowledge.
They know that The Sword of Love pursues not for conquest of revenge, but for the purpose of spiritual progress. There can be no progress without commitment, just like there can be no maturity without understanding. Those who can commit demonstrate, through their commitment, the stability of understanding sponsored by their maturity.
The Blessedness of This Sword of Love
As for those who have taken heed of the way life works, and have committed themselves to cooperating with The Sword of Love, they move on at Godspeed—flourishing at life, though certainly not without the occasional failure.
These are not scared of failure—though, they may give way to the fact that failure, whilst it is scary, is the platform for learning; God’s will is, in fact, located there.
Failure, and the acceptance of learning, is so often evidence of courage, underpinned by humility. With such competence for learning there is no fear of The Sword of Love; the rationale of commitment is understood.
***
What a wonderful peace sweeps through the lives of those who are friends with The Sword of Love: commitment has been found a sure and certain ally, aiding life by proving sure and reliable in others’ lives. Such a person can God rely upon.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
Postscript: The Sword of Love has but one exception; that is explained When Commitment Is Wrong.

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